The tenants of Two Coves Farm are asking the Maine Superior Court to vacate an arbitration award that ordered them to leave the 110-acre farm by the end of 2025, but the farm’s owner says their appeal lacks merit.
A dispute about rent, productivity and other issues led to an arbitrator’s decision in October ordering Joe and Laura Grady to vacate the farm on Harpswell Neck. The arbitrator said the Gradys underpaid rent by more than $124,000 over several years and failed to meet lease requirements related to active farming.
In an appeal filed Dec. 30, the Gradys asked the court to vacate the decision and issue a stay of eviction that would allow them to continue living on the farm. Their appeal argues that arbitrator Timothy J. Bryant overstepped his authority by ordering them to leave the property.
The Gradys contend that, because the farm is also their home, state law prohibits them from being evicted without a judge’s order. They argue that all residential evictions in Maine require a judicial process, and they can’t be done through arbitration.
Farm owner Neils Point LLC, owned by local resident Helen Norton, filed a response to the appeal on Jan. 15. It says the arbitrator acted within his authority and followed applicable law. The filing emphasizes that the Gradys voluntarily agreed to arbitration as the method for resolving disputes under the lease.
“At no point during the course of the arbitration did the Gradys assert that the lease was in fact a residential one that fell outside the arbitrator’s authority,” the response to the appeal says.
Two Coves Farm, a rare example of commercial-scale agriculture in Harpswell, is protected by agricultural conservation easements held by the Maine Farmland Trust and the Harpswell Heritage Land Trust.
Norton, a Harpswell Neck philanthropist who also owns the Harpswell Schoolhouse restaurant, bought the farm with her late husband in 2006 to protect it from development. The Gradys first leased the property in 2009 and signed a second lease, for 25 years, in 2017.
Norton and the Gradys have offered differing accounts of what led to their dispute. Norton has accused the Gradys of underpaying rent and violating the terms of their lease.
The Gradys have said the conflict arose from a dispute about the role of a an employee of Norton’s in the farm’s day-to-day operations, as well as a disagreement about how rent should be calculated.
The Gradys’ appeal takes issue with the arbitrator’s conclusion that the 25-year lease signed in 2017 requires them to actively grow crops. They say the lease contains no such requirement and Bryant merely inferred it from general language about maintaining a productive farm.
“While the arbitrator asserts that the 2017 lease ‘references’ use of the farm as productive cropland, he is in fact mistaken: the 2017 lease includes no reference whatsoever to use of the farm in this manner,” their appeal says.
The Gradys say the farm has remained productive under their stewardship. They have pointed to extensive livestock rotations, pasture-based egg and meat production, haymaking and other productive work at the farm.
But Norton’s response says the arbitrator reasonably interpreted the lease as a whole and acted within his authority. It says the arbitrator’s findings were supported by the record and asks the court to deny the Gradys’ appeal and confirm the arbitration decision in full.
It could take several weeks for the court to reach a decision. In the meantime, the Gradys remain on the farm as the legal process continues, leaving the future of the property and its operation uncertain.
